Ride for Nepal
People are being encouraged to get on their bikes during May to help raise money for those working in Nepal’s cycling industry who have been left without jobs following this week’s devastating earthquake.
Events company Rather Be Cycling has set up a Ride for Nepal page on Just Giving and is asking riders to choose one day between now and 29 May when they will be out cycling and donate £1 per mile they ride.
Like much of the Nepalese economy, the bike sector there is heavily dependent on tourism and Rather Be Cycling is aiming to raise at least £1,000 for tour guides, trip crew, office and store staff who have been affected by the disaster.
Hopefully with your help, we can get them much more than that.
Our official grumpy Northerner, John has been riding bikes for over 30 years since discovering as an uncoordinated teen that a sport could be fun if it didn't require you to catch a ball or get in the way of a hulking prop forward.
Road touring was followed by mountain biking and a career racing in the mud that was as brief as it was unsuccessful.
Somewhere along the line came the discovery that he could string a few words together, followed by the even more remarkable discovery that people were mug enough to pay for this rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work. He's pretty certain he's worked for even more bike publications than Mat Brett.
The inevitable 30-something MAMIL transition saw him shift to skinny tyres and these days he lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.